Journal Number 111
February 2009

FAR NORTH DIARY

By Kevin Matthews

15 SEPTEMBER.
A few pix from Te Paki on a recent trip with Anne Fraser, Maureen Young, Jeremy Rolfe and Bill Campbell - a most successful trip in the way of open flowers. Anne had the pleasure of introducing me to my Great Great Uncle's Thelymitra - thank you Anne.

She asked me to capture on film the wee calli (residual postanther?) located between the 2 yellow ears like appendages extending out from the column. These vary from plant to plant in number, but 2-3 calli generally.

Anne has a reference from Jones describing them as wart like on the Aussie Thelymitra matthewsii. She pointed out that ours has pointed calli (horn like).* Note on the axial picture the recess is clearly shown mid-anther (photos below).

Thelymitra matthewsii		Thelymitra matthewsii
Thelymitra matthewsii		Thelymitra matthewsii

	My Linguella puberula is flowering at the moment - there are 100's in the colony but only a few will flower - will send pix, it's a hard one to photograph. I wondered if the bent-back floral stance was typical of the species?
Linguella puberula

22 SEPTEMBER.
I photographed Plumatichilos tasmanicum yesterday; interestingly the labellum on one flower was still lying along the horizontal lateral sepals fully exposing the stigma.

The U shaped callus tip of the labellum had a "leg" located in each lateral sepal as if it was designed for the purpose.

I revisited the flower an hour later and the labellum had released to the normal arch position, possibly due to heat or vibration. I will revisit the site to see how long it takes before the lateral sepals drop down; of the 2 flowers open both had forward pointing lateral sepals.

I'm also interested in a yellow "disc" to the rear of the labellum which on first thoughts appeared to be a disc of pollen.

(Later: I can confirm that is what they are: other flowers also dumped their clumped pollen in
the flower).

Plumatichilos tasmanicum		Plumatichilos tasmanicum

Bill Campbell found the P. tasmanicus colony not 25 metres from my Linguella puberula colony; we reckoned there was a good chance of turning it up in the vicinity of Linguella and sure enough it was there.

This area is turning up some good stuff with a good number of yellow Thelymitra carnea and also a large form of T. carnea (photos below).

The structure of the plant must be a throw back to the Australian parents. It has variable U channeled leaf up to 500mm long, peduncle height of 450mm and still growing. Up to six flowers, 20mm when open. The flowers are definitely T. carnea but the overall structure of the plants belies this fact.

Given that T. pulchella is so variable one could or should expect some variability in T. carnea; however T. carnea has (in the past) always presented itself consistently.

Thelymitra carnea		Thelymitra carnea
Thelymitra carnea		Thelymitra carnea

	28 SEPTEMBER. The hairy labellum on the Plumatichilos tasmanicum may be a freak... need to see more of a cross section. The Thelymitra carnea var. (large form) is quite happy to open flowers.

26 OCTOBER.
Its been a pretty good year for orchids up this way so far with Thelymitra flowers opening in less than perfect weather.

The scented T. pauciflora attached (photo left) shows close similarity with T. sanscilia with deep cleft.... however as you know the cleft is far more pronounced on T. sanscilia. This one also has 2 in-turned fingers on the postanther lobe. The postanther cleft margin is very in-rolled making it appear blunt in the picture.

I have this same form growing on the farm here just north of Kaitaia, it also sports the red saddle and in-turned postanther fingers but I've never been lucky enough to catch it open. Here at home it's growing in open areas under tall kanuka and is associated with Chiloglottis cornuta; the substrate is silica sand.

Out at Otangaroa Forest, which is south west of Mangonui, it's growing track side in heavy clay.

The wee 90mm Microtis arenaria (four photos below) is growing out on the Tauroa Pen. Ahipara. The flower including the ovary measures a mere 4-5mm which makes them rather
hard on the eye!

These could easily be overlooked as poor specimens of M. unifolia. The notch on the labellum
tip of this colony is not pronounced and is somewhat variable, however all sport the back
turned (in-turned) apiculus at labellum centre tip; the detail of which can be just seen in
the attached pic. The humpback form of the ovary is another clue that draws the eye.

It's growing in a dry open area under kanuka along with Thelymitra aff. longifolia and a wee
colony of Caladenia "nitida-rosea" (which was another pleasing find).

Microtis arenaria		Microtis arenaria
Microtis arenaria		Microtis arenaria

	The Plumatichilos tasmanicum opened the flower on the 21 Sep 08, on the 12 Oct 08 the lateral sepals were still at their downward position. When I returned to the site on the 23 Oct 08 they were drawn up as depicted. This means it takes at least 3 weeks for the lateral sepals to draw closed. The swollen ovary looks very much pregnant!

Finding a self opened Thelymitra "rough leaf" (photo below left) was a real bonus on a
recent outing in the Ohia area. Another (photo below right), right alongside, lacked the V
in the postanther lobe.

Thelymitra "rough leaf"

I have an intriguing Prasophyllum with long tapered ovary and single finger-like column
arms lacking the usual "2 point ends" on the go at the moment; nothing here quite matches
but would be closest to P. "Tohanga".

24 NOVEMBER.
Thelymitra pulchella variations...(photos below).

Thelymitra pulchella

25 NOVEMBER.
Kevin sent the photographs of a Thelymitra with an orange post-anther lobe.
I (The Journal Editor) have been calling this plant "Thelymitra aff. brevifolia Jeanes"
for want of a better name, and suggested to Kevin that his plant might have short leaves.

He replied, "I cannot find a description as yet for Au T. brevifolia. I imagine that the post anther margin is in-rolled on T. brevifolia to have been placed in T. pauciflora originally. To compare this to the similar NZ form one needs to know if the southern lot has a blunt p.a or in-rolled.
This wetland form has a blunt post anther margin with no column shoulder.

The leaf on this wetland T. 'orange' post anther is similar to the smaller plants of T. 'Ahipara'
and they are difficult to tell apart without checking out the flower. The larger robust T. 'Ahipara'
have a fleshy closely folded leaf which I guess refers to Peter's description of succulent and
Ixia-like. Getting back to your question: is the leaf short? It is of average length for Thelymitra."

Thelymitra aff brevifolia

* Anne Fraser wrote, "Cheeseman [1] said in his 'new species description' 1910, that the column was not produced behind the anther. There were 'occasional evidences' of a slight crest connecting the column arms at the base. He also observed that T. matthewsii differed from T. variegata in Australia in the column wing 'scarcely crested on the back behind the anther'. Jones 2006 [2] said, 'post anther lobe short sometimes notched with dense grape-like cluster of globose glands'. In his 1993 [3] edition he had used the same description and added that it was 'sometimes flanked by short accessory lobes'. Interestingly, Rogers 1930 [4] describing T. matthewsii as T. D'Altonii, the original species name in Australia, wrote 'middle lobe much shorter or obsolete without any dorsal crest'.

1. Cheeseman,T.F. 1910. New Species of Plants. Transactions New Zealand Institute 43: 177-8.
2. Jones DL. 2006. A Complete Guide to the Orchids of Australia including the Island Territories.
    Reed, Australia.
3. Jones DL. 1993. Native Orchids of Australia. Reed, Australia.
4. Rogers RS. 1930 Contributions to the Orchidology of Papua and Australia. Trans.R.S.South Australia. 54:
    pp37-46.

See also Anne's abstract in this issue - Ed